Serigraph definition:

A stencil method of printmaking in which an image is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface. Also called silkscreen process and screen-printing. A serigraph is a print made by this method.

The word Serigraph is a combination of two Greek words, seicos, meaning silk, and graphos, meaning writing. Silkscreen printing and other stencil-based printing methods are the oldest forms of printmaking.

Printmaking is a process for producing editions (multiple originals) of artwork. Painting, on the other hand, is a process for producing a single original piece of artwork. In printmaking, each print in an edition is considered an original work of art, not a copy.

Silkscreen printing can be traced as far back as 9000 BC, when stencils were used to decorate Egyptian tombs and Greek mosaics. From 221-618 AD stencils were used in China for production of images of Buddha. Japanese artists turned screen printing into a complex art by developing an intricate process wherein a piece of silk was stretched across a frame to serve as the carrier of hand cut stencils.

Silkscreen printing found its way to the west in the 15th century. The original material used in screen printing was silk, hence the name Silkscreen printing. Today polyester is the fabric of choice.